Apple has begun adopting the "iCloud" name within several products currently under development, suggesting the appropriately labeled moniker is indeed the frontrunner for the company's soon-to-debut Internet cloud service, which will span beyond streaming music, AppleInsider has learned.

According to people familiar with the matter, Apple is prepping beta versions of both iOS 5.0 and Mac OS X Lion ahead of its annual developers conference that integrate with a service dubbed "iCloud," enabling users to sync and store much of the same information they currently can with the company's existing MobileMe service, such as bookmarks, email, contacts and iCal events.

With Apple promising to "unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS" at its Worldwide Developers Conference in five weeks, it's increasingly likely the Cupertino-based company will use the forum to divulge its plans for iCloud and provide its Mac and iOS developer communities with tools they can be used to leverage the new cloud service from within their applications.

Word that Apple is making active use of the name in future versions of its operating systems comes just one day after GigaOm's Om Malik cited sources as saying that the iPhone maker this month acquired the iCloud.com domain name for an estimated $4.5 million from Sweden-based desktop-as-a-service company, Xcerion. Conspicuously, Xcerion’s existing iCloud service was just rebranded to CloudMe, with the company purchasing the CloudMe.com domain on April 5, 2011.

To date, much of the focus on Apple's rumored iCloud service has revolved around streaming music to mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. Recent reports have stated that Apple has completed work on its music streaming product, and has even signed at least two major record labels for the rights to stream copyrighted content to users.

But evidence seen by AppleInsider suggests the service will go beyond music, and could be the central component of a revamped Apple's existing MobileMe service. To this end, reports dating back to February characterized Apple's plans future internet service plans as including a digital "locker" that would hold all of a users personal memorabilia, including photos, music and videos. That would negate the need for future Apple mobile devices like an iPhone to have a great deal of internal and costly flash memory storage.

Apple is also said to have been toying with the idea of making its enhanced MobileMe a free service that would further tie users into the Apple ecosystem and drive sales of the company's profitable hardware device. And while the music streaming component of the service could potentially be included free at first, at least some features of the music service would eventually require a fee, music industry insiders have said.

Currently, Apple's $99-per-year MobileMe service offers users 20GB of cloud-based storage, for both uploaded files and e-mails. But Apple has recently made it difficult for consumers to purchase new MobileMe subscriptions, further hinting that the company plans to implement radical changes to the service sooner rather than later.

But with fifth-generation iPhones reportedly not in the cards until later than usual this year, the new cloud service from Apple may not debut in earnest until the formal release of iOS 5, the next major iPhone operating system update. Reports suggest that iOS 5 will arrive alongside the anticipated "iPhone 5" this fall, bringing cloud services integrated into Apple's mobile operating system.

By introducing an iCloud service to developers this spring alongside pre-release versions of Mac OS X and iOS, Apple would afford itself ample time to test and stabilize the technology, which is likely to go a long way towards helping the company avoid a humiliating high-tech meltdown, like the one that recently hit Amazon's EC2 cloud service, crippling the services of its partners along the way.

For Apple, a move away from MobileMe and towards iCloud would mark the third time the company has completely overhauled its suite of Internet services. Initially dubbed iTools before being rebranded .Mac and targeted at the company's computer install base, the service was revamped and renamed again as MobileMe alongside the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008, introducing push email, push contacts and push calendars to its existing suite of web apps.

Apple's grand plans for iCloud are also believed to be rooted in its massive data center in Maiden, N.C., which is also conveniently slated to go online this spring after nearly two years of preparations. Apple executives have already gone on record as stating that the facility was conceived to support the future of both its iTunes and MobileMe services, which will soon interface with iCloud.

The $1 billion, 500,000 square-foot facility is five times larger than the company's current data center in Newark, Calif.

Well Im not too surprised by this. The delay of iWork suggested that it might be due to an incorporation in some cloud service. So I expect to see the next iteration of iWork tightly integrated with iCloud and am looking forward to this! Keeping files in sync between computers is just a mess.

It makes sense to totally overhaul internet based products several times, it's hard to know what to use them for. Syncing was a good insight. Also email makes sense because messages are relatively small and read from nearly everything. Music may also work well since music files are quite small by today's standards and typically listened to linearly.

I think video may be premature with the quality of today's networks. Perhaps they will only sync the metadata about what video files you have. If they intend to consult this metadata and offer you the option of streaming from your home PC, I remind them of the immutable truth they may have forgotten in the cloud hype: streaming kinda sucks (from a user experience point of view).

Gatorguy: I agree with you, but Apple's probably got two options here...
1) Buy the iWhatever with less flash and sync over wifi (essentially, your mac and your iWhatever will be logged-in/registered with the same appleid and the datacenter will coordinate the p2p between the two devices).
1a) Same as 1, but for $x/month Apple will store your info in the iCloud for remote syncing anywhere (no need to leave multiple devices turned on & connected).
2) For people who can't sync wirelessly very often (or if cellular rates are too high), there's the 64gb iWhatever.

So it'll be a tradeoff and customers can pick the option that's right for them.

The more I think about iOS5 & Lion being released together, the more I'm convinced that iOS5 is to Lion as Snow Leopard is to Snow Leopard Server. (Identical OS, but with fewer:more features)

I have seen the future, and it's my mac mini server. I love that little guy...

iPod, iPhone, iPad. These are like booster rockets that have been attached to Apple's stock price. And now even before iPhone and iPad has fizzled out, we now have iCloud. Another round of dizzying increases for AAPL, anyone?

It makes sense to totally overhaul internet based products several times, it's hard to know what to use them for. Syncing was a good insight. Also email makes sense because messages are relatively small and read from nearly everything. Music may also work well since music files are quite small by today's standards and typically listened to linearly. ...

I think that the media's emphasis on the iTunes part of the future cloud services is leading everyone astray. Given that Apple hasn't actually announced anything, the assumption that what they will announce all has to do with iTunes and cloud-based music and video storage might turn out to be quite wrong.

It seems far more likely to me, (and far more doable), to have the cloud component work as a slightly enhanced version of the way iDisk works now (i.e. - a simple integrated storage solution for mobile devices). It also seems way more likely to me that the cloud services would allow for removing the tether between the iOS device you own and your computer by allowing you to download and install updates from the cloud and register to the cloud etc.

How many more iOS devices would sell if they could remove the requirement for someone to already have a computer before you buy one? It seems like that might be an enormous number.

I think the current idea that the cloud is just going to be a big storage area for your desktop computer or your entire iTunes media library, (with presumably a scale of "storage plans" depending on how much stuff you have), is both shortsighted and "old-fashioned" thinking.

iPod, iPhone, iPad. These are like booster rockets that have been attached to Apple's stock price. And now even before iPhone and iPad has fizzled out, we now have iCloud. Another round of dizzying increases for AAPL, anyone?

Uh, no. Apple makes it's money selling software-enabled physical products. iCloud is a "booster rocket" for those products but can't be a substitute. It's like iTunes in general. Sure Apple makes good money selling music and apps, but it's pocket change compared to the money they make from the hardware that benefits from the software.

How many more iOS devices would sell if they could remove the requirement for someone to already have a computer before you buy one? It seems like that might be an enormous number.

I think the current idea that the cloud is just going to be a big storage area for your desktop computer or your entire iTunes media library, (with presumably a scale of "storage plans" depending on how much stuff you have), is both shortsighted and "old-fashioned" thinking.

That's an excellent point and would be a real game changer. My mother in law wanted to get an iPad to replace her MacBook, and we advised her against it. Today an iPad can't effectively be your only computer-like device. I suspect that Jobs has an eye on a near future where the typical household has a few iPads/iPhones and zero traditional PCs or Macs. This massive data center could be an enabler of this vision.

Given I use 1 or 2 TB drives now as my basic drive size needs for what I do I'd say your cost estimate would scare the pants of me Until Flash Memory is down to a tenth of that (and even then) this looks an interesting addition service to me.

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Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody

I think that the media's emphasis on the iTunes part of the future cloud services is leading everyone astray. Given that Apple hasn't actually announced anything, the assumption that what they will announce all has to do with iTunes and cloud-based music and video storage might turn out to be quite wrong.

It seems far more likely to me, (and far more doable), to have the cloud component work as a slightly enhanced version of the way iDisk works now (i.e. - a simple integrated storage solution for mobile devices). It also seems way more likely to me that the cloud services would allow for removing the tether between the iOS device you own and your computer by allowing you to download and install updates from the cloud and register to the cloud etc.

How many more iOS devices would sell if they could remove the requirement for someone to already have a computer before you buy one? It seems like that might be an enormous number.

I think the current idea that the cloud is just going to be a big storage area for your desktop computer or your entire iTunes media library, (with presumably a scale of "storage plans" depending on how much stuff you have), is both shortsighted and "old-fashioned" thinking.

Agreed! I have been saying from iPad launch that the day may well come that a cloud service will replace the need for a mother ship locally. I can see Apple providing a special cloud based log in area that can actively perform services remotely just as the Mac does now for an iOS device. Not just be a passive storage system. New purchases (at an airport for example) would be able to get up and running simply by logging to an automated 'virtual dock'. This could go even further and even allow a remote boot for Lion based Macs if required.

As I said earlier ... What ever Apple do with this, all the others; Google, RIM, Microsoft, H.P. et al, will suddenly have an epiphany and realize that was just what they were about to do too ...

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

For Apple, a move away from MobileMe and towards iCloud would mark the second time the company has completely overhauled its suite of Internet services. Initially dubbed .Mac and targeted at the company's computer install base, the service was revamped and renamed MobileMe alongside the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008, introducing push email, push contacts and push calendars to its existing suite of web apps.

Not to get too technical on the details, but won't this be the third overhaul, the product started as a free service called iTools. Then revamped to .Mac. Then to MobileMe.

Let's face it. What ever Apple do with this, all the others; Google, RIM, Microsoft, H.P. et al, will suddenly have an epiphany and realize that was just what they were about to do too ...

Great comment. I agree.

And, we'll be bombarded with snide comments about how Microsoft originally thought of it (despite their inability to implement it in any way, shape or form), HP's CEO said it was the company's future waaaay before Apple's CEO did (despite their having spent billions on some cloud company with absolutely nothing to show for it so far), how Amazon was first to do it (despite their inability to get permissions from record companies, and the darn thing already dying on users a couple of times), etc etc.

It seems far more likely to me, (and far more doable), to have the cloud component work as a slightly enhanced version of the way iDisk works now (i.e. - a simple integrated storage solution for mobile devices). It also seems way more likely to me that the cloud services would allow for removing the tether between the iOS device you own and your computer by allowing you to download and install updates from the cloud and register to the cloud etc.

Well they have been very careful on iOS devices not to include a file browser, and to have each app manage it's own documents. Perhaps this approach foreshadows their intent to move documents to the cloud (if not apps themselves).

Not to get too technical on the details, but won't this be the third overhaul, the product started as a free service called iTools. Then revamped to .Mac. Then to MobileMe.

Yes, the third. And quite exciting. It seems like Apple might have finally figured out where the Internet belongs in their grand scheme of things. Or maybe it's just another stab in the dark! But going back to an iName suggests a certain confidence.

And, we'll be bombarded with snide comments about how Microsoft originally thought of it (despite their inability to implement it in any way, shape or form), HP's CEO said it was the company's future waaaay before Apple's CEO did (despite their having spent billions on some cloud company with absolutely nothing to show for it so far), how Amazon was first to do it (despite their inability to get permissions from record companies, and the darn thing already dying on users a couple of times), etc etc.

Can't wait to see how Prof. Jobs teaches the industry a lesson again.

In all fairness, I've been doing things in "THE CLOUD" for a long time. I've been sharing documents and syncing folders with different servers that could be accessed publicly or with password. I have been using Mac.com/MobileMe since the beginning of time, but honestly I don't find it to be that great. It's not user friendly.

Many of us have been paying $99 a year for nearly 10 years now. You would think it would finally be great. I've only been holding on to it because I want to keep my email address. It's like buying season tickets to the Cubs. You know they are going to lose, but you don't want to lose the good seats the year they finally make it to a World Series.

I don't say this because I hate MobileMe, as it has gotten me out of a few document sharing binds, but the overall service is not worth $99 per year.

I hope you are right and Steve and the rest of the Apple gang show us the way to the true cloud, but so far it has been a bust (IMO).

In all fairness, I've been doing things in "THE CLOUD" for a long time. I've been sharing documents and syncing folders with different servers that could be accessed publicly or with password. I have been using Mac.com/MobileMe since the beginning of time, but honestly I don't find it to be that great. It's not user friendly.

Many of us have been paying $99 a year for nearly 10 years now. You would think it would finally be great. I've only been holding on to it because I want to keep my email address. It's like buying season tickets to the Cubs. You know they are going to lose, but you don't want to lose the good seats the year they finally make it to a World Series.

I don't say this because I hate MobileMe, as it has gotten me out of a few document sharing binds, but the overall service is not worth $99 per year.

I hope you are right and Steve and the rest of the Apple gang show us the way to the true cloud, but so far it has been a bust (IMO).

There are all kinds of possibilities with this. I'm very excited to see what Apple pulls out of their hat this time. Perhaps the vaunted pc-independent iOS device? With a robust enough cloud (as evidenced by the MASSIVE data center), it could be done!

Flash is relatively cheap and considered against today's data rates is a glorious bargain. However I don't even consider this to be even a secondary problem. Listed below are some really significant issues that I see as a big problem here.

Security! There is simply no way for Apple to say your data will be secure. Further putting so much data into one location gives the thieves a lot of incentive to break in.

Bandwidth! There simply isn't enough RF spectrum to service people running their own radio or TV channels. Without care we could end up with highly congested networks.

Latency! Why wait for a successful network transfer when you can deal with files locally.

Reliability/availability! There are simply to many places in this world where you will never have connectivity.

Now realize this, I'm a Mobile Me. User right now! I use it to store pics and other stuff plus I sync via Mobile Me. I also have dropbox and Evernote but none of these is a replacement for local storage. What we really need is more flash in our iOS devices not less. That really doesn't discount the value of the cloud at all. It just reflects that the need for local storage and the cloud have nothing to do with each other.

I think that the media's emphasis on the iTunes part of the future cloud services is leading everyone astray. Given that Apple hasn't actually announced anything, the assumption that what they will announce all has to do with iTunes and cloud-based music and video storage might turn out to be quite wrong.

It seems far more likely to me, (and far more doable), to have the cloud component work as a slightly enhanced version of the way iDisk works now (i.e. - a simple integrated storage solution for mobile devices). It also seems way more likely to me that the cloud services would allow for removing the tether between the iOS device you own and your computer by allowing you to download and install updates from the cloud and register to the cloud etc.

How many more iOS devices would sell if they could remove the requirement for someone to already have a computer before you buy one? It seems like that might be an enormous number.

I think the current idea that the cloud is just going to be a big storage area for your desktop computer or your entire iTunes media library, (with presumably a scale of "storage plans" depending on how much stuff you have), is both shortsighted and "old-fashioned" thinking.

Exactly! The idea that the new cloud service will be about the storage of huge amounts of data such as music is silly. It is sure to be about extending the functionality and experience of iDisk, specially in conjunction with iDevices.

Any improvement over MobileMe is welcome, but to really knock this out of the park it needs to be the official dropBox for iDevices and as others have hoped, a way to cut the tether.

There should be a file pool locally stored on the device but always synced to other computers/devices on same account (like DropBox). This would make things so much easier for serious work on an iPad. Use a sweet iPad app to create an art or music asset, sit down at your computer and find it right in the iCloud folder automatically to work with further. Plus, view/play it as music on your wife's phone. No file management actions required.

To make this the de-facto standard, however, a moderate amount of cloud space needs to be available to EVERY iDevice/Mac user for absolutely free. The key to paying for all that free service is the music licensing. Anything bought through iTunes doesn't take up your cloud space as it streams from one shared file. This gives an extra incentive to BUY music from iTunes/Apple. Extra revenue, right there. I know I'd stop checking for better prices at the Amazon music store myself if this was the case.

The numbers may not add up, but there is the potential for tremendous added value to all Apple products if they can offer this as a starting point for every Apple hardware purchaser without extra cost. Of course, upgrades to storage can cost per year. Seems to be doing well for the DropBox people. I wonder what the $100 a year for Mobile Me would get me in iCloud space?

In all fairness, I've been doing things in "THE CLOUD" for a long time. I've been sharing documents and syncing folders with different servers that could be accessed publicly or with password. I have been using Mac.com/MobileMe since the beginning of time, but honestly I don't find it to be that great. It's not user friendly.

Many of us have been paying $99 a year for nearly 10 years now. You would think it would finally be great. I've only been holding on to it because I want to keep my email address. It's like buying season tickets to the Cubs. You know they are going to lose, but you don't want to lose the good seats the year they finally make it to a World Series.

I don't say this because I hate MobileMe, as it has gotten me out of a few document sharing binds, but the overall service is not worth $99 per year.

I hope you are right and Steve and the rest of the Apple gang show us the way to the true cloud, but so far it has been a bust (IMO).

I have bought MobileMe last year because i got myself an iPhone and I had the feeling that I would someday need the "Find my iPhone" feature. Now that this incentive is gone I will probably end my subscription in autumn this year. I have never used my email address because I didn't want to get locked into MobileMe.

Contact/Cal syncing is nice, but not that nice to justify 99. At the beginning I was really exited about iDisk but it is pretty much useless because it is so slow and you cannot share folders with people like on Dropbox. Even if they had this feature, i don't know anybody else that has MobileMe. Didn't think this feature of Dropbox would be so important to me but it is....

Hopefully this cloud locker will have some nice performance and a free 1 or 2 GB option.

Me too. But it is pretty cool that Apple is ramping up for something that Apple Insider has not completely figured out months before launch. Nice to have some surprises when they announce something new.

Whatever iCloud is all about I just hope it is seamlessly integrated with Mac OS and iOS. The idea of waiting for documents to load from a cloud (every time) doesn't sit well with me. I know that will be an option like we already have with iDisk, how off location our files and data will be in the future remains to be seen.

Side note, never liked mobileme as a moniker or .me as an address. iCloud is distinctly and Apple product name without being too obvious.

In all fairness, I've been doing things in "THE CLOUD" for a long time. I've been sharing documents and syncing folders with different servers that could be accessed publicly or with password. I have been using Mac.com/MobileMe since the beginning of time, but honestly I don't find it to be that great. It's not user friendly.

Many of us have been paying $99 a year for nearly 10 years now. You would think it would finally be great. I've only been holding on to it because I want to keep my email address. It's like buying season tickets to the Cubs. You know they are going to lose, but you don't want to lose the good seats the year they finally make it to a World Series.

I don't say this because I hate MobileMe, as it has gotten me out of a few document sharing binds, but the overall service is not worth $99 per year.

I hope you are right and Steve and the rest of the Apple gang show us the way to the true cloud, but so far it has been a bust (IMO).

Actually, I agree with you on that one. MM has been an utter bust for me too. (Inertia, more than anything else, has kept me there for years). I am surprised that the team in charge of that has actually survived at Apple.

But I think Apple is taking its time on this one, and one hopes that it is a radically different product/service. One also hopes that the MM folks had nothing whatsoever to do with iCloud.

Given I use 1 or 2 TB drives now as my basic drive size needs for what I do I'd say your cost estimate would scare the pants of me Until Flash Memory is down to a tenth of that (and even then) this looks an interesting addition service to me.

Consider this AT&T charges you between 20&25 dollars fo 2GB of data transfer. If your music and video is online that 2GB could be gone in a couple of weeks. Massive local storage is the best option for the consummer. Especially in the context of mobile devices kept far from WiFi connections.

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Agreed! I have been saying from iPad launch that the day may well come that a cloud service will replace the need for a mother ship locally. I can see Apple providing a special cloud based log in area that can actively perform services remotely just as the Mac does now for an iOS device. Not just be a passive storage system. New purchases (at an airport for example) would be able to get up and running simply by logging to an automated 'virtual dock'. This could go even further and even allow a remote boot for Lion based Macs if required.

I'm not sure there is a bug advantage here. Apple could configure iPad to boot up, at purchase, tomorrow If they really wanted too. They don't so must have their own reasons. Don't get me wrong I'd rather that Apple get away from the current initialization requirement, but I don't see it having anything to do with the cloud.

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As I said earlier ... What ever Apple do with this, all the others; Google, RIM, Microsoft, H.P. et al, will suddenly have an epiphany and realize that was just what they were about to do too ...

Nope I think some of those outfits are about to punt.

In any event I'm still convinced that the need for local storage has nothing to do with the cloud. I really don't think Apple will saddle it's users with devices that are totally dependent on the cloud. The economics is just heavily in favor of big corporations and very bad for consumers. If people grasp what is going on they will likely revolt as the cloud is a way to drastically increase income from high data rates.

In the end I think one has to be very gullible to believe that mobile devices and the cloud will work well and in an economical sense. Especially in the context of streaming music & media.

iCloud will either store, or be the conduit for, all of your Mac and iDevice content, programs, apps, data, music, etc. This will make everything available to you everywhere, and when you tap into iCloud from any Apple branded device, iCloud will automatically format your content for whichever device you are currently using: iMac, iPod, iPod Touch, iPad, iNewDevices. iPods with wifi will only access your music collection, whereas your more capable iDevice will be able to access all of your data, which will be formatted for that iDevice.

New iDevices and Macs will have NFC chips which will interact with each other so they will know when you arrive home and which device you are switching to, automatically transferring control or whatever song you are listening to or app that you are using to the Apple device in front of you. This will open up opportunities for many more iDevices for your home, work and play. Like iFridge, walk buy and your refrigerator notifies you that you need to buy milk, iLight that turns on the lights when you walk into the room, your AppleTV automatically turns on when you walk into your living room, your house goes into powersaving mode when you leave it.

Me too. But it is pretty cool that Apple is ramping up for something that Apple Insider has not completely figured out months before launch. Nice to have some surprises when they announce something new.

I agree, this is exciting. I think the whole Gizmodo iPhone 4 thing last year really made Apple take a good hard look at some of their leaky faucets and made them nice and tight again.

Tired of speculation. I can't wait until Apple reveals the whole plan.

There will never be a whole plan. This will be an evolving set of services based on the market and what will help Apple sell more products at the time. This year, it may be a media locker, next year, something else.

New iDevices and Macs will have NFC chips which will interact with each other so they will know when you arrive home and which device you are switching to, automatically transferring control or whatever song you are listening to or app that you are using to the Apple device in front of you.

This is what Ive been wanting, too.

For having such a large and connected ecosystem its too riga morale to switch from my iPhone, iPad and Mac for certain tasks. For example, when my iPhone is on my home network or in the general vicinity and/or Im using my Mac I want the Push email to disable so it doesnt vibrate every time I get an email. I also want this for many apps that use the push notification service that also have desktop or iPad counterparts.

Now that we have the Mac App Store a few APIs could result in some very clever and brilliant ways of solidifying Apples ecosystem even further.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

I have bought MobileMe last year because i got myself an iPhone and I had the feeling that I would someday need the "Find my iPhone" feature. Now that this incentive is gone I will probably end my subscription in autumn this year. I have never used my email address because I didn't want to get locked into MobileMe.

Actually my .me mail address has become very useful to me. First it is spam and crap ware free. Plus no adds or other marketing crapola to bust the mail box.

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Contact/Cal syncing is nice, but not that nice to justify 99.

No syncing by itself isn't worth the $99 bucks. You can't however look at mobile Me like that. The value comes from the total of the services offered. Now we can argue about price but I find that overall it is worth some money very year.

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At the beginning I was really exited about iDisk but it is pretty much useless because it is so slow and you cannot share folders with people like on Dropbox. Even if they had this feature, i don't know anybody else that has MobileMe. Didn't think this feature of Dropbox would be so important to me but it is....

Why do you feel that you need to have just one service. For example I've intalled dropbox and Evernote on my iOS devices and I still use .me.

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Hopefully this cloud locker will have some nice performance and a free 1 or 2 GB option.

When dealing with the cloud performance wil never be nice all the time. That is the nature of networking. As to a 2GB option that is pretty much useless these days.

There will never be a whole plan. This will be an evolving set of services based on the market and what will help Apple sell more products at the time. This year, it may be a media locker, next year, something else.

True, there is never going to be a final plan. Things always change. But it seems to be shaping up that Apple has a clear, concise plan in place for the next 5-10 years of both of their platforms. Heck, that plan may even include those 2 platforms becoming one, and maybe Lion and iOS 5 are the beginning of that process, who knows? I think it's awesome that they are also developing a back end system that will work cross-platform between my Mac, my phone, and my iPad (and as others have said, MobileMe is not it, at least right now). I have a feeling Apple has a lot more up their sleeve than anybody in the entire industry can even begin to fathom, and it's going to be a really exciting next couple of years.

There were some leaks they found and plugged. The Apple employee who took a $100k in bribes (or something) comes to mind.

This data center is a bit different since its much more compartmentalized than shipping plans to 3rd-parties over seas, and can be tested with current HW locally or remotely.

I just hope they have learned from the MobileMe free-for-all launch fiasco.

I think they have. Obviously it's not on the same scale, but they have been doing pretty well staggering iOS software updates from iPhone/iPod/iPad hardware launches. Also, when they rolled out new versions of Mail and Calendar for MobileMe, they staggered those updates between their user base as well. Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself, but that's one thing I've come to learn about Apple. If they make a mistake, they certainly learn from it, and almost never make that same mistake again.

Well they have been very careful on iOS devices not to include a file browser, and to have each app manage it's own documents. Perhaps this approach foreshadows their intent to move documents to the cloud (if not apps themselves).

Yeah, I don't think I'm smart enough to see exactly how it's going to work, (and Gruber made an excellent argument recently about how difficult it would be to just "cut the cord" between iOS devices and the host PC anytime real soon), but it has to happen at some point.

Right now I do a lot of writing on the iPad and once you've used Pages feature to "save to iDisk" it's so obvious that this is the way it will be for everything at some point. Pages UI and especially it's document handling is pretty primitive at best, but keeping your docs in the cloud is still miles better already than managing the documents through iTunes.

I don't think I've added documents to Pages through iTunes ever since the first time I loaded them last year.